Brussels, Oct. 22 (Lusa) - Portugal still has the third largest public debt in the European Union (EU) in 2017, although on Monday Eurostat today revised its forecast to 124.8% of GDP, compared with 125.7% in its first notification in April.
The eurozone's public debt was also revised, but increased, compared with the first notification, with the EU statistics office reporting a 86.8% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio, compared with an estimated 86.7% April - a decline compared with 89.1% of GDP in 2016.
The EU's public debt fell to 81.6% (against 83.3%), slightly below the 81.9% reported in the first Eurostat notification.
Fifteen Member States had a government debt of above 60%, the highest being in Greece (176.1% of GDP), Italy (131.2%), Portugal (124.8% - from 129.2% in 2016), Belgium (103.4%), France (98.5%) and Spain (98.1%).
The lowest debt-to-GDP ratios were observed in Estonia (8.7%), Luxembourg (23.0%), Bulgaria (25.6%), Czech Republic (34.7%), Romania (35.1%) and in Denmark (36.1%), according to Eurostat's figures.